There is a clear and planned takeover of the American government by people who no longer want to work under a functioning democracy but some form of authoritarian, kleptocratic, theocracy and the Republican Party are on board for all of it. If you don’t know about Project 2025 go back and listen to the top of the year show, but this episode is all about the other half of the plan - something called Agenda 47, which is really Donald Trump’s personal plan. Now that he is the official Republican no...
Mar 19, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Sometimes we need to take a break from all the criticism of government to acknowledge the importance of government, especially when they’re doing good things. One of those good things was the recent creation of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention because as we lose people to gun violence in our country every day, as America is put on “no travel” lists because of our gun epidemic, as we witness our suicide rates and accidental deaths by firearms grow exponentially, we clearly can’t ...
Mar 12, 2024•44 min
America is dealing with an existential threat in the 2024 election. It’s not Republican or Democrat, it’s democracy or autocracy, and we can’t screw it up. Which is why I’m pleased to be joined by political scientist and strategist Rachel Bitecofer to talk about her new book “Hit Em Where it hurts: How to Save Democracy by Beating Republicans at Their Own Game”. This is a powerful conversation about winning when we don’t have the luxury of losing. As always, if you find worth in what we do, plea...
Mar 05, 2024•57 min
Author, professor and sociologist Michael Sierra-Arévalo talks to us about his detailed look into American policing with his new book The Danger Imperative: Violence, Death and the Soul of Policing. According to Arévalo, the story of policing isn’t the story of a few bad apples, but of an institutional structure and system that is essentially not working. The violence we see from our officers is the logical consequence of an institutional culture that privileges officers' survival over public sa...
Feb 27, 2024•42 min
Something magical is happening. As MAGA doubles down on extremism and chaos, they appeal to fewer and fewer Americans. At this point all they have is their mad king, while Democrats, liberals and anyone who believes in the American experiment has the opportunity to really make America into the country we tell people we are. We have to plan to win, organize to fight, and aim, not just for success, but for growth and expansion. We can do this and we should feel very exited about the opportunities ...
Feb 20, 2024•43 min
Clearly there’s a need for a new type of media, one that exists explicitly to give people facts, but also to protect and strengthen our democracy. Today we talk to the amazing Tara McGowan, founder and publisher of Courier, one of the fastest growing news networks in the country. Courier is a new take on an old format that honors local news with real reporters on the ground, state news where these big federal decisions are playing out, and explanations of the biggest issues of the day the way th...
Feb 13, 2024•48 min
“Anti-racist” isn’t an identity, it’s actions. It’s doing the work of deconstructing the systems of racism we were all raised in. Systems that harm us all. It’s not about being a “good person” or not being called “racist”, it’s about genuinely interacting with the world to make it better. And yeah, we’re going to make mistakes while we do it. We’re going to blow it and get embarrassed, but that doesn’t mean we should stop trying. Ultimately, it’s not about us. It’s about living and growing in a ...
Feb 06, 2024•1 hr 9 min
Here we are at the top of 2024 with MAGA extremism on a rocket ship to the moon and the GOP hell-bent on stripping away as many of our fundamental rights & freedoms as possible. We don’t have a second or dollar to waste. We want to win 2024. We NEED to win 2024. But it doesn’t have to be endlessly miserable or expensive to do it. Which is why I want you to hear from the Executive Director of Swing Left, Yasmin Radjy. Swing Left is one of the largest drivers of grassroots volunteers and donors ac...
Jan 30, 2024•59 min
We can’t take our eyes off this court for a minute. Which is why I’m joined by Melissa Murray and Kate Shaw, two constitutional professors and hosts of Crooked Media’s legal podcast Strict Scrutiny, to go over the cases you really have to know. From Donald Trump’s Presidential immunity and ballot presence, to abortion drug access, to the attempt of big money to gut our federal agencies’ ability to regulate, these are things you need to know. We can’t just have justices out here taking perks, and...
Jan 23, 2024•1 hr 2 min
If you look at statistics it was actually non-voters who won the last Presidential election. Too many people think their vote doesn’t count, or as our guest, Wayne Liebman says, they think their vote counts too much and are afraid to make a mistake. The Blue Voter Guide takes the burden out of voting. They do the research into the candidates, ballot initiatives, and endorsements so you can see who shares your values and build a ballot you can be proud of. As Wayne says, “political campaigns cent...
Jan 16, 2024•39 min
The crisis in the Middle East, like so many issues that truly matter, is complicated and nuanced and simply won’t fit on a bumper sticker. It’s essential that we look at the whole picture and move beyond who needs to be punished (and many do) to set a goal of creating a place of peace and stability. This is also not an isolated issue. Governments around the world are shifting to the far right and supporting each other as they do it. So, whether it’s Putin, Netanyahu, Hamas or Trump, they’re all ...
Jan 09, 2024•1 hr 9 min
Happy New Year! Welcome to 2024, the year we either destroy or save America. This is it. Make it or break it. To give us a sense of the stakes, I’m joined by journalist Ahmed Baba who recently did an amazing article for the Independent about the the “conservative promise” of Project 2025. Project 2025 is a roadmap to fundamentally reshape the federal government into the image of the far right once a Republican president takes office. We keep talking about the horse race between two people when w...
Jan 02, 2024•53 min
Join me and John Pavlovitz post-Christmas to talk about how America seems off track with the Christian faith. As John says, “It’s not politics or religion that divides us, it’s vision.” What we see as the future and purpose of our country and our collective faiths. We’re in a vision divide America, and we have to ask ourselves if it’s better to live in a conditional community where you silence yourself to avoid being ostracized, or if it’s better to live authentically and seek a new tribe who wa...
Dec 26, 2023•56 min
We’re about to enter probably one of the toughest years in our country’s history. A year that could quite honestly end the American experiment. But America has been through crises before and people pulled us through. So the question is, what are YOU going to do to fight for what’s right in a time when so much is wrong? I’ve asked my friend, and lifelong political activist, David Bender to join us today because he’s lived and worked through so many of America’s ups and downs and he’s fired up to ...
Dec 19, 2023•1 hr 1 min
The Republican party has made it very clear they’re ready to abandon democracy and the rule of law. So, no matter how hungry we are for justice, we can’t help them by abandoning the rule of law ourselves. No matter how irritating it feels to watch justice move slowly, sticking with the strictest rules is the only way if we want to keep living in a country with rules. Today I’m joined by brilliant appellate lawyer and constantly vindicated legal expert, Teri Kanefield for a ‘where we are now’ end...
Dec 12, 2023•50 min
As Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis said, “America has a choice. We can either have great wealth in the hands of a few, or we can have democracy, but we can’t have both.” There’s a shift happening in the American consciousness right now. Where the idea we all bought into, that idea that if we just work hard enough we’ll make it, is starting to feel like a bit of a scam. This concept of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” is beginning to look like a cruel joke and the conceit that the s...
Dec 05, 2023•58 min
As computers get smarter, who do we want regulating them? Who do we want programming them and, ultimately, who do we want leading our country and military response when AI is in the mix? If we get this wrong, how we feel about things like taxes, religion and racism will be the least of our problems. To have this essential conversation, I’m joined today by Ross Andersen. Ross is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covers science, technology, and culture. I’m having him on to discuss his arti...
Nov 28, 2023•45 min
As we come up on Thanksgiving and the holiday season, I started to think of all the things in my life I was thankful for and I kept returning to having a roof over my head. America’s homelessness crisis has become extraordinary and housing has becomes out of reach for so many Americans. Not just in the big cities, but all over the country. Yes, it’s partially a mental health issue, but it’s also a cost of living issue and greed issue. Everything has become too expensive, we don’t make enough mon...
Nov 21, 2023•54 min
Our culture is literally littered with the fallout of unhappy men looking to assert their dominance. From the tantrums of our last president, to our daily mass shootings, to the broad resurgence of patriarchal male dominance, men are not doing ok and they’re making it everyone else’s problem. Join me and the founder of ReMaking Manhood Mark Greene as we talk about what’s gone wrong and how strategists behind the conservative and MAGA movement are looking to weaponize every aspect of the culture ...
Nov 14, 2023•1 hr 10 min
It’s election day in America and all over the country people are choosing the direction they want their country to go. While citizens exercise their right to vote, we know there are people actively looking to undermine and disrupt the process to their own ends. Which is why we can no longer afford to be reactive about our democracy. We must be strategic. There are people out here trying to destroy it, so we have to be working just as hard to save it. Nowhere will that work be more obvious in 202...
Nov 07, 2023•39 min
"Welcome to the world of reality denial, where truth is subordinate to ideology, feelings have more weight than evidence, and democracy hangs in the balance”. We are in a disinformation war in America where the goal of those creating the lies is not just to get us to question some particular fact - vaccines don’t work, covid isn’t real, the election was stolen - but to question your trust in people who might tell you the truth. As Lee says, “Don’t just lie - Polarize.” The right has done this in...
Oct 31, 2023•57 min
If you have to work for a living, then you’re working class, and the sooner we realize most of us are in the same boat, the sooner we can ban together and ask for what we need. John Russell and I talk about how we have more to gain from solidarity than division, and as John says, “It comes down to power. If we want to find common ground, and close the hate gap, it’s essential we realize our futures are irrevocably tied together”. Yes, we need to elect people who will support our needs, but we do...
Oct 24, 2023•52 min
Democracy’s white knight Marc Elias joins us to explain that we aren’t just fighting election suppression & subversion, we’re now fighting election vigilanteism and the new Republican strategy of standing in defiance of the law itself. The GOP seems to have decided it’s simply good politics to say you’re fighting a corrupt system when you, yourself, are the ones corrupting it. As Marc points out, one of the biggest ways to stop these extreme moves against our elections is to raise awareness of w...
Oct 17, 2023•53 min
The 2024 senate map is rough. The Republicans only need to win 2 seats to change the balance of power and the Democrats have 8 that are considered vulnerable. It’s not only essential we win every seat we already have, but we have to buckle down and defend the ones we can’t lose. With that in mind, today’s guest is Michigan Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, running to replace retiring Democratic senator Debbie Stabenow. Elissa and I talk about the chaos in the House of which she is currently a member...
Oct 10, 2023•44 min
We are seeing increasing calls for violence around the country, an incitement to violence by Trump and his compatriots, and an overall threat to our democracy and our public safety with the stockpiling of weapons and ammunition to use against a government, or fellow citizens, with whom people disagree. Join me, and well known public safety advocate Fred Guttenberg, as we talk about these threats and about giving Americans the tools to move off this platform of lies and onto a platform of facts a...
Oct 03, 2023•51 min
Presidential third parties are deceiving the public. They claim to offer a choice, but what they’re offering is an illusion. A dream that somehow their candidate could defy history and do something no 3rd party candidate has been able to do, and win the presidency. There is no grey area here. If you buy what they’re selling and give them your vote, you are fundamentally helping elect Donald Trump to destroy American democracy. I’m not being hyperbolic. There’s too much on the line in 2024 to spl...
Sep 26, 2023•59 min
You want to make a difference to our democracy? Get more people registered to vote. Today we talk to Jason Berlin, the Executive Director of Field Team 6, which since its founding in 2019 has helped register almost 2.9 million Democratic voters, the vast majority in swing states. Jason and his team are a proudly “partisan voter registration” group looking to “track down every good hearted eligible voter and get them on the voter rolls where they belong”. Relentlessly optimistic, Jason and his ar...
Sep 19, 2023•41 min
The majority of youth in America are not on board for the new extremist Republican agenda. They believe in reproductive rights, and that the climate is in crisis. They’re against book banning and propaganda education. They’re majority pro-LGBTQ, pro-union, pro-health care, pro-living wage and pro-common sense gun legislation, and the Republican party offer them none of that. GenZ might technically still be new to politics, with the oldest member of the generation turning 26 this year, but they k...
Sep 12, 2023•47 min
In honor of Labor Day we’re going to talk about the importance of the American worker, but more specifically about the importance of union work. American workers have clearly had enough. The majority of us know we can’t carry on like this. That the wealth inequality and the growing chasm between workers and owners is leading this country down a dark path. At their peak, 40% of American workers were part of a union, now that number is under 7%, and look what’s happened - the rich got richer while...
Sep 05, 2023•46 min
If you care about democracy in America, then you care about the upcoming election in Virginia this November. And before you think yeah, I don’t live in Virginia, I’ll think I’ll skip it, I want you to think about the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in April, or the Ohio special election this August. Most of us don’t live in those states, but our attention on those elections, and their successful results, put the Republicans and their increasingly extremist agenda, on notice. So today we’re going to...
Aug 29, 2023•1 hr 10 min
